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Music: Van Morrison by Johnny Rogan

The popular image of Van Morrison is of a cantankerous, charmless man, prone to berating any journalist within range and capable of treating friends and band members with horrifying boorishness. This has become such a deeply entrenched cliché that it was always tempting to speculate about a hidden, inner Van where the sun always shone and spring lambs gambolled beside tinkling streams.

I’m not sure whether we should congratulate or pillory Johnny Rogan for proving conclusively that no such meta-Van exists. By his own account, Rogan has spent 20 years compiling interviews and research materials, and as he pins down relatives, old Belfast friends, former bandmates and former wives, shape and detail accrue steadily around the contours of Morrison’s personality. Much of the time, it is not a pretty sight.